STEM Website

Over the years of participating in a multitude of STEM competitions and events, apart from learning that there are some pretty awesome things in this world, I realised that there isn’t one central place to go for a reilable, updated list of STEM events. I set about making the list that became my STEM page but event that is incomplete and outdated already as well as being unorganised and messy.

One day I intend to develop a website that could contain all these things properly, maybe it is a good project for YRS (https://youngrewiredstate.org/ ) ? Either way, here is my rough plan for what such a website would have to be structured like:

STEM COMPETITIONS ETC WEBSITE

The website would have to be split into sections:

1. The Database

2. Student Profiles

3. Company & Institution Profiles

4. School Profiles

If anyone finds a competition or event that wasn’t listed there should be an option for new ones to be registered but have to be checked out before being added to the database.

1. The Database

The database could be viewed as a list of profiles for each competition instead of just one big, unorganised list. The profiles:

i. Title

ii. Label – To quickly filter through certain factors

· Archived – Because sometimes when competitions stop running they no longer exist on the internet so previous winners no longer have something they can link to to support their CV etc. By keeping archived profiles BUT labelling them clearly also means if sponsors are interested in resurrecting them or trying something similar then they can see what happened before and who to contact to find out what it was like.

· One–Off – There were a few one-off sports science competitions in 2012, or physics ones for Galileo’s birthday and many others. Similar problems to general archived ones but they also carry the fact that as one-offs, teachers can’t prepare or train students the way some do with older, longer competitions and no is quite sure what to expect so it is important to help winning students get credit for this.

· Established – E.g. NSEC, Young Engineers. The competitions that have been going for a long time and so have accumulated lots of support and prestige.

· Regional – Only for people in a particular region e.g. only in Merseyside

· Income– Tested – Only for people below certain household incomes

· Price – Costs money to participate

iii. Description

iv. Website

v. Tags – the science categories that it is relevant to, e.g. physics, vet science

vi. Age category

vii. Eligibility – a link to the website’s eligibility page rather than listing all here, use the labels for a quick filter

· There should be a warning option here if there are small print that students should be aware of e.g. Google Science Fair projects can’t have been used in previous competitions, Olympiads often require teachers to nominate students and they cannot enter themselves independently

viii.Application Dates – even if this is only approximate e.g. March to May, because often websites of competitions when they’re not open are useless at telling you when they will be open again and no one has the time to keep checking back for updates.

ix. Type –

· competition –

i. large projects – e.g. NSEC, Google Science Fair, Tomorrow’s Water Prize

ii. written work – e.g. Corti Science Prize, Bosch Horizons Essay

iii. photography & film – e.g. Planet SciCast, Loughborough engineering Photography

iv. other

· course – e.g. Headstart , Villier’s Park

· other

x. Prizes? – if applicable or maybe just a link to prizes page of website

xi. Project links –

· Reuse Project For.. –e.g. reuse EES project for CREST Award

· If you like this… –

· Shared sponsor/institution… – e.g. Go4Set and EES share EDT

xii. Comments & Twitter Feed – to easily view feedback from teachers saying whether it’s worth hassle, whether students enjoyed it or thought it was lame etc, allows the sponsors & organisers to respond directly

xiii.Follow – for users to register their interest and get updates from that competition

xiv. Sponsors & organisers – links to either websites or profiles (3.)

2. Student Profiles

Students can register and the list will be filtered through for them. They can sign up to a newsletter and then competitions they might be interested in can be emailed to them when they open for applications or when new ones are created.

a. Username – Real names won’t be required

b. D.O.B – not public but to help the users filter through the competitions relevant to them

c. Location – doesn’t have to be public, again to filter through relevant competitions

d. Interests – tags of subjects e.g. medicine

e. Alumni – links to competitions & courses they’ve taken part in, maybe a “winner” option possible if they won something there as well?

f. Following – the competitions they are interested in

g. Contact? – Maybe not public but available for schools and sponsors if they wish to contact and ask about their experiences etc?

3. Company & Institution Profiles

Companies can register a profile.

· They can follow competitions they support for feedback

· Get connected to competitions they may be interested in sponsoring

· See if any similar things exist if they are looking to set up something new